Most of us grew up with the understanding that all we need to know about sugar is that it is the white powder we add to our coffee. Now, however, we have to wake up to a new reality where the growing rates of obesity in Europe necessitate a closer look at the ingredient[1] that is already labelled by some as the root of all evil, and the single cause of growing obesity, diabetes, tooth decay and other health problems.

While sugar is a hot topic in consumer media, the jury is still out on which sugars are good and which are bad – although all sugars, natural or added, are treated by our body in the same way. Similarly, there is also a lack of any robust data to indicate the best way of regulating consumption of sugary foods to improve public health.

So what does this mean for the manufacturers and retailers of food products? To help answer this question, we have selected five key sugar policy developments that the food industry should keep a close eye on in 2017, to anticipate the possible impact of the sugar debate on their business.

Every week we will be publishing a brief analysis of one of these key developments and on 9 November 2016 we will continue our discussion at the H+K sugar policy roundtable with Therese Comodini Cachia MEP, Co-Chair of the European Parliament’s cross party EU Diabetes Working Group as well as food policy experts from H+K Paris and Berlin who will provide their perspectives on sugar policy in France and Germany, where elections will take place next year.

If you are interested to attend the event please register by sending an email to Jesse Pappers Jesse.Pappers@hkstrategies.com or by calling our office at +32 (0) 2 737 95 00.

[1] Total sugars and added sugars are defined in this text according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA): the term “sugars” covers monosaccharides and disaccharides, the term “added sugars” refers to sucrose, fructose, glucose, starch hydrolysates (glucose syrup, high-fructose syrup) and other isolated sugar preparations used as such or added during food preparation and manufacturing.